Expert: Malaysian Tigers Could Go Extinct As Early As 2022 If We Don’t Take Action Now

Earlier this year, we reported that our Malayan tigers could go extinct in five to 10 years as there are only 200 left in our country. This data was released in a statement by the Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar during a parliament sitting on 18th March 2019. He said that this situation can get a lot worse if we don’t take the necessary steps to curb the issue.

However, it looks like we have to get to work quickly because a conservationist shared that we may lose the tigers even sooner than we think. Dr Mark Rayan Darmaraj said that the species could go extinct within two to three years as the number of remaining Malayan tigers is too little. Oh no, that means the Malayan tigers could go extinct by 2022!

Hence, he thinks that the government should form a wildlife crime unit that specialises in “investigations and intelligence gathering” of poachers because poaching is the main cause for the Malayan tigers’ sad fate. He further suggested that the team would help in the following ways:

It would help amp up the team’s professionalism by seeing that legal action is taken starting from the evidence collection stage up to the prosecution process.

The team could also help collect information on poaching syndicates.

Mark said that in most cases, poachers are often people who work for foreign syndicates, so he explained that the breaking through the syndicates should be our main cause, other than just prosecuting poachers.

On that note, Darmaraj lauded Dr Xavier (minister) for his initiative to recruit the army in order to solve illegal hunting but he urged for it to be executed ASAP! He said,